Wished For
by MissMunchkin
Summary: Angel and Buffy experience the miracle of a daughter years down the road. Angel already has two children, yet this child presents a maginificent gift in his life. Then a frightening twists takes Angel and everyone he loves onto a dangerous journey.
1. Default Chapter

            Christmas lights sprinkled red, white and green lit up the grounds of 1126 Cecily drive. Behind the stone and iron walls their merry light could barely be seen. This was where they had created their heaven in a bottle, a piece of land cornered on each side by thick walls of metal and stone.  Massive walls that shut the world out while protecting the peace within, something these two had fought decades for. Tonight, this ordinary star filled night, was turning into something different. Tonight, within these walls, within this peace a scream destroyed the silence of their world. It was Buffy who screamed.

            Sweat trickled over every inch of her skin as she smothered another grimace. The pain was nothing like she had ever felt; she thought she had experienced every conceivable kind. She had died, let go, killed, smothered, destroyed, vanquished and every other way she thought something could die, she had done. This was not the ending pain of death; it was of mercy and life. The sheets twisted in her hands and over her body. Her stomach, once a cute, firm pregnancy, was stretched and bloated with the child; this new human who was ready to take its first breath.

            Lost to the contraction were the musings of names, features, smiles and first steps. Everything was in place, she was protected and he was beside her. Yet nothing mattered but the waves of unrelenting twists as the child began to emerge from her body. Everyone else in the room shivered with cold, but Buffy was moist and shinny from the sweat poring from her body. With chapped lips she grimaced at her lover, the father of her child, Angel.

            Angel paced in the corner feeling utterly helpless. He had never felt more unready about anything in his life, and he had lived a long time. This was not his first or second child, but his third. Buffy's birth was the exact opposite of everything Darla had experienced with his son. Darla had been cold, dispatched and hysterical during her pain which left her feeding off their unborn child's emotions. Here it was a natural experience thousands of years in the making. 

            "Angel!" Buffy gasped.

            To see the warrior sprawled on their bed looking around with pain filled eyes utterly helpless was disturbing. From the moment he had ever laid eyes on Buffy she had been a creature of agile unnatural strength. Now her thin limbs lay tangled in violet sheets, only moving with the pain. Her blond tresses were woven into a long rope down her back, but the movement and sweat had caused a few layers of curls to form around her glistening face.

            Angel moved to her quickly, taking her spastic hand into his cold, clammy one. He looked towards the auburn Wicca at the end of the mounds of sheets.

            "She is doing wonderful Angel," Willow smiled for a second.

            "Can't you do something for her?" his words whispered of magic.

            Willow shook her head quickly and set her lips in a thin line.

            "Buffy had me promise there would be no magic in the birth of your child."

            He nodded with a sigh; he had heard the exact same words from the slayer.

            "The head is crowning," Willow's calm voice informed him.

            Angel stared into Buffy's clearing eyes.

            "Our baby is almost here" he whispered into her ear. A tear fell from his eye and onto her cheek.

            Buffy smiled up at him. Rose colored candles lay scattered around the room providing the only light. The flickering gold danced across Buffy's face entrancing Angel. He moved closer to her warm body laying a kiss filled with his urgent need to have the pain over for her on her dried lips. Buffy sucked his strength in pouring all that pain into their passion. Within that kiss came the first cried of their child.

            Stunned Angel looked towards Willow.

            Tears slid down their friends flushed cheeks only to be broken by the beautiful smile on her lips. Then she spoke.

            "She is here."

            "Buffy, our daughter is here" he gasped.

            Buffy's tears had cleared her eyes, which now reflected the fading candle light in them. Using Angel's arm for strength she pushed herself up from the humid sheets where she reached her exhausted arms for her child.

            Willow brought their daughter wrapped in a cream blanket to the edge of the bed where they both got their first glimpse. A sight of innocent beauty. The ending finale of their love was tiny; Angel could not believe she was real. Her tiny glowing fingers lay delicately at the edges of the lace. For a bairn so small she screamed something deadly. Yet what entranced him about his new daughter were her eyes. They were Buffy's eyes, yet entirely his child's own. Outlined in gold the green and blue brightened with every blink. Angel wondered if Connor's eyes had ever been so full of light. 

            Willow whispered a blessing over parents and child before quietly leaving the room. She followed the trail of candles down the tiled steps to those waiting. Before she even entered the room she knew where each one would be. Xander would be sprawled in Angel's large cozy, several bags of this and that scattered around his snoring frame. Anya, the ever talking one, would be silent for once in her life. Tiny Fred sat reading a thick manuscript over sleeping Conner's head curled up against her husband, Gunn, who looked off into the unknown. Wesley would be the nearest to the door along with Giles and Dawn. In his arms he would hold Cordelia's child, Lucian. The child five years ago Cordelia had laid into Angel's arms to keep forever. She was the one missing, Cordelia, who had been with all of them ever since the beginning. They knew she watched on from a place they could not enter.

            Entering the shadowed room she could feel their tension laced with hope. It was Wesley who saw her first. He rose quickly, with Lucien asleep in his arms.

            "Buffy and Angel have a daughter," Willow said simply. Without hearing him step up behind her she turned to Giles.

            "She is doing fine."

            He responded by removing his glasses to wipe with the handkerchief permanently stored in his pocket. Willow could not ignore the tears in the watcher's eyes. His slayer had just given birth to a child, an awing fact in its own right, for no slayer had ever lived long enough or experienced love truly enough to give birth to a child. In each of their hearts they thanked someone for tonight.

            Upstairs in the arms of her parents, Buffy and Angel named their child. They called their green eyed joy, Aveline Arella Summers, Hazel Angel.


	2. Breathing Again

            A breeze floated across the dark grounds and past Angel who watched from the balcony. He leaned against the iron rail on the balcony outside the bedroom he shared with his lover and the mother of his children, Buffy. It was in that room, on that bed their miracle was made and born. That was also where his daughter had brought him life. 

                Thinking back to that memory was as easy as if it had happened a breath ago. It was the night his daughter was born, his hazel angel. Buffy had laid his precious in his arms and then something happened. Angel's skinned crawled with emotion while a tear escaped his shinning eyes, slid down his cool cheek where it took a home on his daughter's minature features. He had moved to wipe it away, and when his skin touched that of his child's something surged between the two of them. He had looked to Buffy to question her but Buffy was gone. 

                In a haze of white light where all he could see was the baby someone whisperd his name. He raised his daughter to his chest and turned around.

                "Angel."

                There stood a petitie smiling woman with short dark curls. She beamed in a gold aura.

                "Cordelia" Angel managed in his shock.

                "She is perfect."

                Cordelia took a step towards his child. With a golden finger she smoothed the baby's rose cheek.

                "She is Buffy, she is you."

                "I've missed you," Angels body ached just from the familiarity of her voice.

                Standing before him was the one woman he had loved, mourned and completely lost. His friend and mother of his Lucien. 

                "Angel she brings a gift to you."

                "Yes she is a gift," Angel tightened his arms around his daughter.

                "You do not understand, she brings a gift for no one but you," she took his chin to stare straight into his eyes.

                "Angel she brings you life," she paused for a second. "A mortal life."

                "What do you mean?"

                "Your shanshu Angel, she is this. She has brought you life."

                "Why?" Angel breathed.

                "You have fought for decades Angel, Buffy right beside you and you beside her. Then each of you went your own way. The time has come for you to move on from your demon form. You have fought too long, too far and too good to be locked within that tainted evil form. Your daughter brings you this gift, you created her out of love and this is what she gives you."

                Angel locked eyes with Cordelia, knowing it was true.

                "Cordy, I miss you. We all do."

                She nodded.

                "Lucien…"

                "He is bueatiful, Angel, and so stong. I can hear his laughter, even from here."

                She gently reminded him that she this was where she belonged but she could still see all of them.

                "He knows you are his mother."

                "He knows _you as his father, that is enough," she corrected._

                "I love him because he is a part of you."

                "I gave him breath Angel, you have given him a future. That is why you love him, not just for, but because he is your son."

                Angel longed to ask her every question he had wondered of since she had left their world for another. It had been almost unbearable to let her go those first few years. He had poured himself into his life with Connor and helping innocents. Then she had come to him that night, five years ago, with a child wrapped in her arms. She offered no explanations yet he had immediately understood. This was her child and she had given him to Angel. She had given him his son, Lucien, and for that he would be ever grateful. He had a part of Cordelia that he would never lose.

                "I love all of you Angel."

                He reached out and pulled her mortal image to his body, in that moment his heart healed of her lose. She smelled of rich perfume, ancient dust and sunshine. She smelled like Cordelia. 

                "She is going to be one hell of a young woman. Love her Angel, love them all."

                Then he was back beside Buffy, who stared at him. Her face was solemn and questioning.

                "What happened?"

                Angel took a breath before he could explain.

                HE TOOK A BREATH!

                In over two hundred and fifty years he had not experienced a breath. The tightening feeling as his lungs inflated with oxygen and then expelled the gases his body no longer needed. Angel plunged into that feeling and just waited. He took a second breath and another and another.

                Then the crashing in his chest began.

                Buffy pressed a hand to his chest in alarm.

                "What is w…..OH MY GOD!" she gasped.

                "My heart," Angel whisperd.

                "It's beating," she stammered.

                "I'm alive Buffy, truly and everlasting mortal."

                "How?" Buffy spoke one word.

                He looked down into his daughter green eyes. She blinked.

                "Our daughter, she brought me life."

                "Cordelia said she brought me life."

                Once back in the cool air of the balcony Angel gazed up at the stars. Their amount was one part of the mortal world that would always continue to fascinate him. He wrapped his arms around his chest. That night he had taken his first breath. It had been his first night as a mortal man, whole in mind, body and soul.

                He crossed the bedroom to the hall that lead left to a large, weakly lit chamber. Murals of the enchanted covered the walls, while stars hung from the ceiling. Next to a brass iron bed Buffy was curled up in the deep rocker with Aveline in her arms. His daughter's black curls spilled against her mother's breast where she was snuggled. Beneath a tattered pink quilt tiny, bare feet poked out. On the dark oak dresser a porceline music box played the child's favorite melody, Amazing Grace.

                "Is she asleep?" he whispered.

                Buffy nodded and stopped rocking.

                Angel reached for the tiny one, wrapping his mind in her sweet baby smell. After three years this was still his favorite time with Ave, as they sometimes called her. She was a warm cuddly bundle. He held her to his chest for a couple of minutes enjoying the rythme of her innocent sleep. Then he laid her underneath the ivory comfortor Buffy pulled back on the other side. Aveline immediately curled up on her right side toward her father with one thumb tucked between her strawberry lips.

                "Good night sweet one," he whispered into her curls as he bestowed a gentle kiss on her forehead.

                Buffy leaned over the other side, kissing her daughter's flushed cheek.

                "Lullabies Ave."

                It was a nightly tradition they had performed since the second night she was born.

                Angel moved to the doorway and turned the switch while Buffy lit the child's fairy nightlight beside the bed. The soft glow soaked around Aveline's face giving her a tiny halo of gold.

                In the hallway Angel pulled Buffy into his arms, kissing her forehead.

                "I know this is always the hardest part for you."

                "I hate saying good bye to her, leaving her to the dream world. I always feel as if she is utterly alone there," she murmured into his chest.

                "Our daughter," he mused. "I should think not, that little girl has the most magnificent imagination I have even known in a child of any age."

                "Oh, and how many children have you known my love?" 

                "The sleeping one in there and the two rebels downstairs," Angel nodded topwards the stairs.

                "Ahhh.." Buffy grinned at the thought of their sons, Connor and Lucien.

                "Most likely their still drowned in Huck Finn," Angel guessed.

                Buffy and Angel refused to have cable in their home. There was too much of a chance that their children would encounter something bitter or awful on the screen. They had both worked so hard to create a peaceful, normal world for their children, so only movies, screened earlier by Buffy or Angel, were allowed in the Gailen home. When Connor had reached the age to attend school Angel had taken the surname of Gailen, to make things easier for his son. The child's legal name was now, Connor Nicholas Angel Gailen. With their youngest son it was, Lucien Chase Gailen and Aveline Arella Summers Gailen. 

                In the bright den Angel found his two boys crowded into a over stuffed chair with their Shepard, Taringtin, sqooshing the two into one corner as they raid Huck Finn. Connor was the first to look up at his father and the woman he called mother. Angel's eldest son was tall for his age, at ten, with a powerful build and intelligent blue eyes that sometimes were almost so blue they appeared black. When he was intrigued by something his eyes squinted like his father and his mouth turned grim, but most of the time he was a humorous child with merry eyes. His younger brother was everything an average seven year old should be, loud, lots of energy and into everything. Lucien's bright blue eyes were the first feature that drew people to this friendly child. Behind those innocent blue eyes lurked the sharp tongue and quick witted intelligence his birth mother, Cordelia, had possessed. 

                Connor's eyes shifted over his parents and he laid a head on the shepards head.

                "Tarin's taking up all the room," Lucien complained yet with a grin. 

                "I can see that," Angel chuckled.

                "Who wants some hot chocolate?" Buffy moved towards the kitchen.

                "Please," two hands shot up in the air. Lucien scrambled to follow his mother with pleas for extra marshmallows.

                Angel lowerd himself to the floor and stretched his long legs out. Shannon, their female Shepard, appeared from the hallway and beside Angel where she settled against his thigh.

                "Is the book any good?"

                "Oh yeah." With only one question Angel let himself be taken onto a journey through his son's words.

                Connor was the first of everything good in his life. Once, he had thought he had lost his first born. At the time he had never believed he would ever have another child. Connor had been brought back into his life and then Lucien came. His children, Buffy and his friends were a family Angel never conceived he would ever had. Now he did have them and he savored every moment. The last three years had been his golden age and he would give nothing for it to have ever changed.

                From the moment he took his first breath Angel had begun a new life, a good life. He and Buffy worked Angel Investigation together out of the Hyperion hotel with Gunn, Fred, Wesley and Willow. Giles lived in London training new watchers and doing research at the National University. He made several trips across the ocean back to L.A. for the children's birthdays and every holiday. Anya and Xander lived in Seattle with their four year old son Shane and infant daughter Gabriella. They owned a magic shop by the ocean and Xander ran the legal part of Angel Investigations from that end. Lourne traveled the country meeting contacts and expanding their demon database when he was not in Los Angeles taking care of the dealings of his new and last rebuild of Caritas. It was Dawn, Buffy's younger sister, who had gone the farthest away. She was now in Africa studying ancient magics with Willow. The young woman had proved to be a powerful psyche and wiccan. 

                Everyone's homebase was the Hyperion in L.A. After Aveline was born was when everyone had trickled away into their own lives. They were all still incredibly linked yet just not within a few short miles of eachother. The general consenses was that if Buffy and Angel, or anyone needed anything the others were ready to drop what they were doing and they would all pull back towards the support this family had. There had been no problems in years. Their lives were all going smoothly and as normaly as those above would allow. 

                From the kitchen came the sounds of Buffy's gentle voice as she indulged Luciens giggles for more marshmallows. Yes, this was peace, Angel sighed and ruffled Connors dark curls.


	3. Familial Beginnings

**_Familial Beginnings_**

Chaos of the early morning greeted Angel who emerged from the back staircase. Taringtin shoved Shannon from the food bowl making the first dive for his master. Man greeted beast with a creased hand caressing the dark silky head. Tarin licked Angel then turned back to his mate and breakfast. Lucien dressed in gray thermals boasting airplanes kicked against his chair while arguing with his brother of the logistics of Santa clause. 

Their parent's eyes met for a minute enjoying the secret they had successfully shared for one more year even though Connor was almost eleven. Dark curls flew when a whirlwind threw herself at Angel. Aveline's hazel gems stared wide eyed at her father once they were face to face when he held his daughter. 

          "Papa!" she squealed running tiny fingers through his hair reminding him he and the boys needed haircuts that weekend.

          "Sunshine," he nuzzled her curls.

          "Honey can u set her up for breakfast," Buffy smiled towards their toddler's highchair.

           This was their one battle of the day with Avelline, she hated being confined in the wooden chair but otherwise she ran and food went everywhere. Sure enough their daughter informed them once again of the power of her lungs until her father set a bowl of cheerios in her hands.

          Morning progressed past breakfast to the point where everyone was finally dressed. Buffy came out the master bathroom dressed in gray slack and a green sweater. Looking quite comfortable and all the sexier to Angel, she caught his stare.

          Then the phone rang, they ignored it.

          "DAAAD!!!" Conner yelled.

          Angel regretfully pushed his thoughts of Buffy in bed away to focus on his child's voice.

          "Which one?" Angel called. There was a very short list of people who had their number and an even smaller list of who would call this early in the morning. 

          "Gunn."

          "Can't it wait until the office?" He grumbled. Behind him Buffy laughed as he picked up the phone.

          "Hey Boss!" Gunn's deep baritone greeted him, far too cheerful this early. The man had married Fred after all and now started to sound like her. 

           "If you say good morning Gunn I'll blast you through the phone."

          Gunn by passed that greeting, going straight to business.

          "Loren just called leaving a tip on some Dassenir demons."

              "Details?" Lucien came into the room passing his father a permission slip.

            Holding the phone back from his face Angel stared at his youngest son.

            "Why didn't you bring this to me earlier?"

             A typical I-don't-know shrug was his only response.

             Angel blew frustration from his lungs to look for a phone.

             "Boss?" Gunn inquired.

             "Loren, Dassenir demons. Do we have details?"

             "Wes has everything. Their big, seven feet one average, green skinned covered with deadly pus pockets. They catch their victims with an entrancing hum. Only way to kill 'em is to slice down the middle or get the heart at the buck of their lower back."

            "We are on our way. Can Fred be ready when we get there?"

            "Sure thing."

             There was no good bye; in their life they never said good byes. Their family had already said too many.

            "Angel?" Buffy inquired at her husband, stepping into the room with Aveline, still in her pinky footy pjs, in her arms.

            "Gunn," he explained everything in one word. They never mentioned or talked about their work in front of the children, although Lucien and Connor already had ideas about what their parents did. 

           She nodded passing Aveline and the unspoken question of would he get the imp dressed, to her husband. Angel gathered the fuzzy bundle that was his daughter under one arm leaving Lucien to his mother.

           He read the fairy clock in the lavender room where his daughter slept, it read 7:05. He had exactly five minutes to get the nineteen month old dressed and combed. In seconds dark curls were brushed, held back in blue clips that matched her jumper and patent shoes. Hazel locked with blue; Aveline giggled landing a squishy kiss on her Papa's itchy chin.

            "Ants!" smooth fingers ran over the shadows of his face.

            "Your right Aveline, Papa needs a shave."

            Over a decade ago, Angel mused, there was no one to point out he needed a shave. Now it was a tiny cherub in his arms that was completely his. Hugging his daughter he spun towards the crib, grabbed her diaper bag, nana the blanket and Gilley the bear. Aveline accepted the brown stuffed creature from her father snuggling into its softness. Giles had presented it his god-daughter when she was 6 months old and from there on the two were inseparable. She had even bestowed the toy with Giles names, although translated into her baby language it was Gilley.

            By 7:30 the Gailen family of five, including Shannon and Tairen, climbed into Angel's black suburban with the tinted windows and Willow's protection spell, headed to the Hyperion. Aveline bubbled over with a mixture of coherence and nonsense beside Connor who informed his father that Tairin was trying to sit in his lap. Lucien stared out the window quietly until they were six blocks from the house when he announced he had forgotten his lunch. Buffy sighed, Angel hide a smirk and drove on. It was a typical morning in the Gailen household.

           At the Hyperion Angel left the suburban running while he and Buffy met Fred at the stairs. 

           "Their all you're Fred," Angel winked squeezing the petite beauty's arm. She laughed.

           "Thanks," turned to Buffy. "I'll keep Ave with me until you guys get back."

           "Her bags at the foot of her seat with extra clothes and a morning snack. Usual naptime."

           Buffy turned to gaze worriedly at the vehicle for a second. Angel felt her anxiety, it was always hard to leave their loves behind to go fight the big bad, but it was what they did. He reached out and took her hand.

           "Thanks again Fred," then tugged Buffy into the hotel.

           Fred climbed into the front of the suburban where she had to adjust the seat to reach the pedals. Aveline stared at her through the rear view mirror.

           "Morning missy!"

           Aveline giggled and waved, which consisted of scrunching her pudgy fingers up and down. 

           "Hey Fred!" Connor climbed into the front seat followed by Shannon.

           "The lady can stay, mister Connor needs to go back," Fred warned.

           "I know, I just wanted to say good morning," he reached out and hugged Fred sideways.

           Fred kissed the brown head she had cradled ten years ago, a child they all had almost lost. For a second she inhaled his little boy scent taking her back to the early days. Moments of warm welcome, family coming together then struck painful by a loss, a return and then saying goodbye. The wondering about Cordelia had almost killed Angel, tearing apart them all. Having Connor back, the child Angel had lost and not the tormented young man he would have become was their miracle. A single child had started to seal the wounds of the Angel Investigation's team when a second, Lucien, brought closure. A single though of Cordelia still took Fred's breath away like a sharp blizzard wind but memories and Cordelia through her son brought summer warmth to make them alive again.

            Fred entered the gates of Asherybe Academy and drove around to the side entrance where they met Colin. Colin was the champion who had held the key to bring Connor home. Tall, dark and deadly the young man took a place in the Gailen family. He now served as bodyguard to the once vamperic Angel's children. Under the guise of a second grade teacher and baseball coach, Colin supervised the boys' protection at the school. When he was not needed to keep an eye on Connor and Lucien, Colin served as the Angel Teams tactics and security agent. Much of his past was still dark to them but everyone, above all Angel and Buffy trusted the man.

           Colin approached the dark vehicle opening the door behind the driver's seat. He was greeted in the face by Gilley bear. Fred noticed that Colin seldom smiled, but it was little Aveline who even above her brothers brought a glow to his face. It was quite an astonishing change. 

            "Morning mia," his coarse fingers fingered silky black.

            "Col…" Aveline reached for Colin to pick her up.

            "Not this morning mia, the little men will be late," he chuckled softly eyeing Connor and Lucien.                     

            "Ready?"

             Connor nodded, kissed his baby sister's pink cheek followed by a second from Lucien. Colin lifted Lucien over the baby's car seat the stepped back onto the sidewalk.

            "I will bring them back to the Hyperion around four," he informed Fred.

            "Have a good day guys," Fred waved, rolled up the window driving away.

            *                                                    *                                                  *

            Beneath city hall in the main sewer pipe Angel sliced an ancient Zodiac sword into the one of a dozen Dassenir demons. Wesley had been right, it was a nest and they were big, ugly along with emanating a putrid stench. Angel's stomach churned from the odor. The ugly green giant pressed its thick, fleshy lips together to hum its deadly melody. Not one of the team heard it for their ears were plugged with thick wax, Buffy's idea. 

            Behind Angel, his wife hacked into three of the demons intent on figuring out why the humans were not attracted to their little chorus group. One swung a spiked pussy arm to impale her into the middle, Buffy swung to the right then up behind the demon to hack it straight in half. Poison showered her boiling any exposed skin into a mass of red blisters. As always she pushed the pain into her agile moves to slice off the back of the second Dassenir. Its roar of surprise radiated off the concrete walls and through Buffy's body. She glanced to the right just in time to see Gunn pin a Dassenir against the concrete while Wesley let go an arrow to lodge in the beast's throat and back. At once in crumpled inside out then oozed to the grown into a green muck. Buffy split the third Dassenir in half before she realized that was the last one. She made her way through the sewer and demon muck to stand next to her husband. He had already pulled the bee wax from his ears and was talking to Wesley.

           "Damn they make a mess," Gunn murmured.

           "At least we don't have to clean it," Buffy thought.

          Gunn thought of every time they had, had to clean the Hyperion after a battle or attack, nodding.

          "What a great start to a day," Wesley rubbed his hands together. The other three stopped to stare.

          "I think I have spent too much time with the books lately," the British man observed.

           It was almost noon when the four appeared back at the Hyperion. Fred was first to witness the aftermath the Dassenir demons had left on them. Golden curls framed Buffy's oval face where some stuck to several different cuts crusted with dry blood. Her slack and sweater were shredded in areas all the while turned a nasty mustard shade. Angel's dark hair stuck together in tufts averaging in ever direction. One of the demons had ripped away the left sleeve of his dark blue cardigan leaving three thick but shallow lashes into burned skinned. Even though he had been human for over a year, pain still took his breath away. It had been so long since he had experienced such a true sensation that did not ebb after a few minutes. The pair of Wesley and Gunn was in the best shape each only with a few scratches, but that was all normal.

           "Aveline?" Buffy asked once she caught site of Fred behind the counter.

           She pushed her glasses up before pressing a finger to her lips then motioned towards Angel's office.

           Buffy pushed a curl away from her face, winced at the touch of a cut and rounded the counter to the office entrance. In the playpen curled up on her side, one finger tucked into her mouth her daughter slept peacefully. Scattered around her slumbering form was an array of books, musical toys and of course tucked into her arms Gilley. Buffy stood over Aveline for a minute and studied her child's delicate features. Even in sleep she had Angel's solemn concentrated facial expression. The only thing that melted it away was the winning smile of sunshine that shone through every other minute the child was conscious. 

           Angel stepped up behind the mother wrapping his warm hands around her tiny waist. Together they witnessed the innocence of Aveline's sleep.

          "She is fine," he whispered in his wife's ear.

          "I know," Buffy sighed. "I just hate leaving her."

          Angel turned her around to face him, taking her chin. "Buffy we never leave her, you can tell that in her sleep. Look at how content she is."

          The rest of the day was full of meetings with new clients and following up on files they had recently finished. Without Cordelia's visions it was sometimes tougher to find the innocents the Angel Team were meant to help. When Lucien was three Angel had discovered he had inherited his mother's visions. With Loren's help Angel had bound his son's powers until the boy could make the decision for himself if he wanted to pursue his mother's gift. Before then the visions were too intense and horrific for the child.

          By four, Colin walked into the Hyperion with Connor and Lucien. Aveline stood hugging Gunn's need who sat on the couch in the lobby when she saw her brothers. After a smiling giggle she sped her chubby legs in the direction of Connor. He met her halfway scooping her up in his strong thin arms. The baby patted the side of his cheek laughing.

          "Hey Avie," Lucien tugged the baby's blue shoe.

          Connor turned around with her to face their brother. Lucien placed a white daisy in the chubby fingers. 

          "Smell it," he whispered.

         Surprisingly Aveline gently placed the flower to her tiny nose and inhaled sweetly. 

         Angel appeared from behind the desk a phone at his ear. He rounded the desk playfully tackling Lucien.

         "Papa!" Lucien laughed.

        "How was school guys?" he clicked the phone off to tickle the baby's chin.

        "We had a fireman come in Papa! I want to be a fireman," Lucien boasted.

        Angel smiled at his younger son's enthusiasm and at Conner rolling his eyes. Sometimes his eldest was far too serious.

        Buffy came up from the base in a soaked sweatshirt, she stopped before her family noticed her. Her heart froze to see Angel with his children. Connor held Aveline backwards against his chest loosely but protectively. Her daughter comfortable, sucked on her thumb with one hand and the other played with the sleeve of her brother's shirt. A crisp daisy lay tucked in the folds of Connor's arms. The resemblance between the siblings was crystal clear, they each had Angel's solemn, critical gaze on what they were focused on, their father. Soft shaped eyes clear and bright with ebony ringlets framing tanned skin.

        "Mom!" Lucien bounced on his feet to be the first to notice the woman in the shadows.

        "Hi Luc," Buffy wrapped her son up in a hug.

        "Look what I gave Avie," he pointed out the daisy.

        "It's perfect Lucien, where did you find it?"

        The boy's eye for details, perfect ones at that, always stuck out to her. He was so much like Cordelia it made her heart ache. They had not always gotten along but Cordelia had grown up into a marvelous young woman with a great destiny. To be able to raise her son as Buffy's own was a gift she and Angel never forgot.

         "Outside of school. Guess what?" he quickly changed the subject.

         "What?" Buffy steered the little boy over to the couch before he launched into the story of his day.

         "A fireman came to our school, and he knew my name. He said that if I wanted to be a fireman he would show me around their station house one day," Lucien beamed.

         "Terrific, we'll have to take him up on that offer one day."

         Buffy caught sight of Colin just as a strange emotion crossed his face then was buried beneath his once again stoic look. He stared straight at Buffy and nodded. She smiled at him. 

         "HELP! HELP!" a voice screamed shrilly from the east entrance of the hotel. Within seconds the Hyperion team went to action. Colin took the baby from Connor's arms then steered Connor towards the elevator Dennis, Cordelia's ghost, immediately opened. Buffy handed Lucien to Fred who followed Colin into the elevator. The children were gone within seconds, safe and away from hearing the screams. From the time Connor had started to walk and understand the world around him Angel had put this plan into action. Any time a new client or threat appeared the children were swiftly removed from lobby into the apartment on the second floor. 

         The elevator opened on the second floor to let Fred, Colin and the children off. Aveline was staring around a little bewildered. Colin stroked her cheek whispering a lullaby in her ear. Lucien and Connor thought nothing of what had happened this was part of their normal routine. In fact Lucien had shifted the attention of his story very easily from his mother to Fred. Buffy and Angel kept a furnished apartment as a safe house at the Hyperion. Within its walls was the safety of Caritas, all because of Loren. Colin pushed the door open where the boys headed for the movies in the den.

         "Homework first boys," Fred called after them hanging up backpacks forgotten.

         Colin shut the door once everyone was in and locked the bolts. Angel would let them know when it was right for the children to go back down. Dennis shut off the television Connor had just turned on. The boy rolled his eyes and huffed. Yet he did not voice his frustrations.

         Downstairs Angel reached the source of the scream first. It was a young woman covered in blood hysterically screaming. From one look at the wound on the girl's neck Angel knew what had happened. He scooped the wilting female up in his arms and back to the Hyperion. Gunn appeared with the first aid kit. Wesley set to work stopping the bleeding to bring the girl around. She was pale which meant she had lost a bit of blood.

         "She has not lost enough to warrant a doctor," Wesley announced. "But she needs to rest."

        Buffy had taken her purse to see if they could find some clue to the woman's identity. In a wallet she found the woman's drivers license. The young woman was Celeste Cummings, a twenty year old student at Cal State. There was nothing in Celeste Cummings wallet to tell why she had come to Angel Investigations beside the two pronged bite on her neck. 

        "Let's get her upstairs Angel," Wesley suggested. Everyone concurred, and then Angel lifted her. 

        Upstairs they put her in the apartment next to Gunn and Fred's, away from the children. Angel felt some inside the woman that made him uneasy. Gently he placed her on the bed where she lay small and pale. Buffy sat with Celeste for a while so Angel could check on the children. He found Colin playing the boys in a game of monopoly since their homework was done.

        "Papa, I'm the dog," Lucien informed his father.

       As always Connor was the banker, and a very serious one at that. He informed Angel of who was winning and how much money he had already made on his property. Colin stared over the boys heads at their father.

       "The woman?" he mouthed the question.

       Angel shrugged and nodded.

       In the smaller of the two bedrooms at the side of the apartment Fred cuddled his daughter in the rocking chair. Aveline was having none of it. She squirmed and whimpered in the woman's arms until she saw Angel. Tiredly he thanked Fred and answered her whizzing questions about the woman. Many of them left unfulfilled she left the father to his child to go downstairs.

      Angel cradled his exhausted daughter to his chest and hummed the Irish lullaby his mother had used on him over three centuries ago, and that he had used on his sons. Quickly she quieted down with the thumb once more in her mouth. He loved her eyes, enchanting swirls of green and blue lined by gold he could get lost in them. They were his lover's eyes yet distinctively Aveline's.

      Darkness cloaked massive strength and huger from the shadow hugging the walls across from the Hyperion Hotel. It could see nothing from its viewpoint but the gray stone walls of the grounds yet felt inside. 


	4. Memories Flow

_Memories Flow_

Aveline crawled into Buffy's arms across the bed laying a sloppy kiss on her cheek. Buffy enveloped her daughter breathing in the baby smell of lotion and sweet dreams. Angel pulled his eldest close until they were heart to heart. Connor laid back against his father until Lucien spoke.

"Santa Came!!" he bounced.

"Well lets go see what he brought," Angel suggested.

            He went to slip on a shirt while his wife changed the baby. Then they joined their sons downstairs.

            Angel stood before entering the room to savor the scene before him. Connor and Lucien crowded as close to the tree as they could, waiting patiently. Buffy found a place next to Connor when Terin appeared to lay against his wife's side. He yawned then licked the baby's face. Aveline giggled while locking her tiny fists in his thick fur, Shannon stared at him, the queen on the couch mirroring her mate's yawn.

"Come on Papa!" Lucien wiggled, his patience gone.

            It was tradition that he played Santa. Gift by gift the mounting pile disappeared from under the spruce. By 8'o clock the Gailen family sat around and empty tree amid a sea of paper. Buffy leaned against Angel watching watching Aveline cover Terin with a piece of green wrapping paper then erupt in laughter when he shook it off. The boys concurred over Connor's new set of space legoes. It was the complete set he had asked for all year.

"It's already after eight, he'll be here soon," Buffy whispered in Angel's ear.

            Angel nodded. Every Christ,as for the past five years Giles had shared day. 

*           *           *

            A tough wrinkled hand paused to knock on the door of 1126 Cecily drive. Through the thick door he heard the laughter. Their laughter, now they were a family. His Buff's family. For five years their lives had all held peace. Even now the though of the two lovers married and with the miracle of a child blew him away. Aveline gave the world of good hope, no other slayer had conceived and bore a child never the less one with a vampire. 

            His girls were grown, one a mother while the youngest roamed the world as a skilled watcher and wicca. Christmas came once a year…he knocked on the door.

            It opened revealing dark eyes and a heavy brow. A mirror of his handsom father Connor smiled.

"Giles!"

            The watcher took lanky limbs and all into his arms. Connor was warm and strong. He looked over the boys head sensing another presence.

            Angel gazed on at the man he had once almost tortured to death holding his son. Aveline cuddled closer to her father's chest at the sight of the second man.  Her father extended his hand.

"Merry Christmas Giles."

            Angel's words broke the spell where both men smiled.

"Indeed it is Angel," Giles ruffled Lucien's curls, stepping inside.

            Angel watched him gaze around then turn to lock eyes with the husband.

"She's in the kitchen."

            Giles neared Angel to pear in the baby's face. She was the spitting image of Buffy. Delicate features on a face with evergreen eyes framed with blond curls. Even at such a new age she radiated power of life and supernatural. Giles breathed it in, smelling Buffy. The slayer who had become his daughter in every way but birth.

"Don't you remember me little one?" 

            Hazel eyes turned away from her father's shirt to stare into his. A strange intelligence bore there in the child's eyes. Man and child gazed on one another for moments. Finally Aveline broke it with a smile. She allowed Giles to lift her from Angel's arms.

"Such a bueaty, she is Buffy all over," Giles told her father.

"Yes she is," Angel tucked Lucien under one arm. "Let's go find your mother."

            They found Buffy in flannel pj pants and a sweatshirt, looking all the world of seventeen, beating a bowl of eggs. She caught sight of Giles breaking into a beaming smile. Without a word she ran into the arms of her watcher hugging both man and child. Aveline babbled twirling her mother's hair. When the adults pulled away she rested comfortably in Giles arms. 

"Merry Christmas darling," he kissed her cheek.

"It really is Giles, now that you're here."

"When is Dawn due in?" he realized the little one wasn't there.

"She and Willow are meeting up with Xander and the children tonight. We are picking them up at 8," Angel answered.

"Good," Giles shifted the child he carried to his other shoulder.

            Giles watched the Gailen family over Christmas breakfast. Angel's affection for his children was apparent and he was amazingly aware of everything going on. When Aveline tipped her cup over Angel caught it before it splattered all over the floor. They were a comfortable, loving family at ease with the life Angel and Buffy had created. There was no mention of anything vampiric, that would come later when the children were tucked in bed away from the reality of the world their parents fought for. 

*           *           *

            Giles remembered that Christmas fondly, the one where Aveline was but a year old. He was on a plane bound for California to see his family for Aveline's third birthday. It had been over a year since he had seen the children. Buffy and Angel had traveled to England this past summer for a month to conference with the Watcher's Council. His thoughts roamed to their little girl as his plane landed.

Time was changing and if only he could stop what was to happen. He looked to his companion in the seat to his right. 

            Spike looked over the magazine he had been reading for the past two hours.

"Are we bloody there yet?"


	5. Coming Changes

Buffy peeked around the corner of her daughter's room watching the child play in the warm sunlight streaming through the gauzy pink curtains covering the windows. She had decorated her daughter's nursery with every detail she had wanted herself as a child. The walls were split in half by white molding, the upper half a soft pink while the lower half was sectioned off into thin ribbed line of pink, purple and white. Above on the celing a mirale of the night time heavens created an enchanting space for her baby girl to grow up. Ave, now three, had graduated from her crib to a big bed, a tiny white sleigh bed she still looked to lost in at night. Right now her daughter was intesnly busy building a castle out of the wooden block Angel had carved for her first birthday. Nearby keeping and eye on the construction was Gilley. After three years his marble eyes were scrathed and his fur matted and faded in place, yet Aveline refused to part with him.

'Mom!" Connor called from across the hallway. He stared around the corner at his mother.

At thirty-one Buffy still could never believe she was the mother of three children, especially when she stopped to consider the birth mothers of her two sons. Blood did not matter though in their family, it was the family bonds that wound Angel, his sons, Buffy and the daughter they shared together.

"Are you done with your math yet?" Buffy turned to Connor.

He pushed his curly dark hair out of his eyes and beckoned for her to come into the room.

"I don't understand number seven," he pointed out in the workbook. For the next hour Buffy was pulled back in time to her own fourth grade math class in the effort to help her son. She kept an eye out for Aveline across the hall, but it was Lucien who stopped the homework session.

Just as they finished the second to last problem Lucien's wails reached Buffy, wails of terror. Buffy pushed the book away from her and grabbed Connor by the hand.

"I want you to go into Aveline's room and and stay with her. Close the door and do not come out until I come to get you." Always thinking the worst Buffy ran for Lucien.

She followed his screams down the curled stairway to the hallway at the back of the house.

"Lucien! Lucien! Where are you?" she called.

"Mommmmmmyy!" the boy wailed in pain. His voice was stronger and loader this time.

Buffy found her youngest son curled up in a ball at the base of the toilet in the downstairs bathroom. Blood smeared the white tile, blood seeping from a pool forming around his head. She knelt beside him realizing he was clutching at his left arm which lie against his still body at a unsual angle. Immediatley she knew it was broken.

"Baby, what happened?"

"I was trying to see the light in the corner and I slipped," his voice waverd.

"Lucien I will be right back, do not move."

In the kitchen she dived for the phone. In the bathroom she curled around Luc murming soft words while she waited for the emergency operator to answer. Within seconds an ambulance was on its way.

Half an hour across town through LA traffic Angel Gaelin tightened his belt swearing like the Irish man he used to be in another life.

"What in the hell does Gunn think he is doing?" he bellowed to Fred, Colin and Wesley.

"Angel, he's only trying to help.." Fred started to defend her husband but lost the words at the annoyance gleaming in Angel's voice.

"For truth's sake Gunn has been working here for over ten years. He should know better than to get involved in some Ricktus Gambler demon. Look what happened last time, he almost lost his life. Now he goes and pledges our help to some drug ridden kid who owes his soul."

Angel did not hear the phone ring.

"Boss.." Colin called.

Angel ignored him turning to Wesley.

"I want to find Gunn right now and get his ass in here."

Wesley nodded, Colin called a little louder.

"Boss!"

"And Fred I want to know…

"GOD DAMN IT ANGEL!" Colin bellowed angrily across the office.

"Colin, I am.." Angel's words trailed off when he saw the impatient anger in his employees eyes, anger trimmed in fear.

"What?"

"Buffy is on the phone. She is calling from the hospital."

"Hopital?" Angel echoed.

"Yes. Lucien….Lucien's there…"

In traffic, even taking dirty shorcuts and cursing half the planet of driver, it still took twenty minutes to get to Mt.Sinai Hospital. Angel had to love LC traffic. Buffy had sounded afraid but controlled on the phone. They had lost so much, so many in their lives, in her life that fear was almost comfortable. Not this fear though, fear for their child.

Colin refused to let Angel drive and sped the black Cadillac through the city. Angel placed so much in Colin's hands, so much of his son's lives. He had met Colin over ten years ago when Connor and Wesley were missing. Colin had been the leader of a vampire hunting group in Boston. When Angel had ran into him, he had been 17, thin, angry and with strength as hard as stone. Colin was a champion, a version of his son Connor from another dimension. It had only been with Colin's help that Angel had gotten his Connor back in this life. Afterwards he had asked Colin to stay on, that he was family in one way or another, so the kid had. Now he was twenty seven with an obligation he felt so immensely for Angel's family, something he had never experienced before in his life, something called love. Hearing that Lucien was hurt made his blood chill. There was no time to be angry with the crashing waves of worry.

At LAX Giles ignored the staring looked from other travelers as he and Spike made their way through the terminal towards the taxi bay. The reason for the curiosity was that he was traveling with an ancient old vampire champion who at the moment was dressed like death in a black cape that coverd his whole body. The damn thing even swished like death against the cold marble floor.

"Will you walk a little faster?" he mutterd to the vampire.

"I will walk as bleeding slow as I want Mr.Perfect-Watcher."

Giled cursed the fact that he had brought Spike in on this, but there was no one else he could trust with the hardest part of the mission. If it was any other person, they would not be able to step away, to give away what was precious. Soon he would be faced against his daughter, Buffy would come to hate him, but he must do this to save everyone, especially what was precious. There were things in the world, things beyond him and even beyond Buffy and Angel.

In the taxi Spkie whined on and on about not being able to smoke at the airport.

"I want a damn fag." As the neared the Hyperion the blond vampire was unusually quiet.

"So we really have to do this geeves?"

Giles did not answer.


	6. Unusual Times Acomin

Disclaimer: I own Colin, Aveline and Lucien, but no one else.

Aveline bounced in Connor's lap where she claimed her thrown as they watched Sleeping Beauty. She loved the scene where Aurora danced with the animals. Connor stroked his baby sister's hair trying not turning around and staring at the strain faced adults who sat near the door of the waiting room. His mom had made him promise to hold onto Aveline before she climbed into the waiting ambulance with Lucien. Then a uniformed officer had placed them in the back of his car.

A hand rested on his shoulder "Connor". He looked up into the dark brown eyes of a young nurse. A nurse who when he looked at her gave him the chills, then a thick languid feeling came over him. He could have sworn she looked at Aveline and licked her lips.

"Your Mom asked me to come and find you. I can take her to you now?"

"Mommy?" Aveline popped up, climbing from his lap to take the nurses outstretched hand. The nurse, whose tag read Evelind, took Aveline's hand moving quickly towards the doorway.

"WAIT!" Connor yelled, scrambled from the floor. In the hallway the nurse was disappearing around the corner of the corridor with his sister on her hip. A desperate feeling he had never felt before flooded his veins, if he was older enough he could have named it as panic. He dashed around the corner calling his sister's name. Down a stairwell and through a shadowed doorway he was suddenly lost in a cold hallway with the sound of running footsteps disappearing.

Aveline's crying directed him into the shadows. His Dad was going to kill him if he lost the baby. Running through a pair of swinging doors he came face to face with the nurse; whose eyes had suddenly turned a raging deep red, Aveline was struggling in the woman's arm.

"Give me back my sister," the eight year old mini warrior struggled to gain his full height.

"The child is mine," the creature hissed, her face turning a mottled gray color.

"I think not. Bitch!" an ice chipped voice flowed in behind Connor. He looked over his shoulder, surprised to see his grandfather Giles. A second man, in a black coat with really white hair moved towards the nurse and child.

"Give me the baby." Spike growled. Aveline reached towards Spike, pushing the foul woman away. The baby stuck a finger in the creature's eye, which let go of Aveline. Spike dived to catch the little girl all the while scraping a knife over the legs of the creature, who howled in pain.

Giles spun Angel's son towards the door as he released the trigger of a silenced gun, blood ripped from the creature who burst in a flash, leaving behind weeping ashes. He pushed Connor through the doorway, gripping heavily on the boys shoulder. Spike followed behind with Aveline clutching at his jacket. He had never seen Angel and Buffy's child, if he was able to breathe who would have stopped. She was Buffy rolled into about two feet of adorable innocence, except for the brooding ridges burrowing above her sea green eyes. Eyes that threatened to tear over.

"Now don't you cry on me love," he warned in her ear. She snuggled against his chest and patted the side of his dace.

"Grandpa what are you doing here?" Connor stammered, not sure what had just happened.

Giles steered the boy into an elevator without answering. He turned to gaze at Buffy's daughter. Aveline directly stared back at him, her gaze all too grown up for one so little. He itched to take her from Spike but this mission must not be emotionally messy. How could it not be though? By tonight he would either be leaving LA with Angel and Buffy's daughter, or she would be dead

Angel ran for the automatic doors of the ear, launching him at the reception desk.

"My son, my son was brought in."

"Name?" the nurse tapped at her computer without looking up.

"Lucien Chase Gaelin."

"Gaelin, male, age six. Curtain seven."

Angel was down the hallway before she could even look up. He rounded the ER three times before a nurse looked on kindly at his pained confusion and directed him to his son. The curtain was drawn around Bed seven, behind shadows murmured and machines whirred. He took a breath and slipped behind the dinosaur curtain.

Buffy looked up, eyes mirrored to her daughters crashing in relief at the sight of her husband. The two doctors flanking his wife looked with curious detachment at him.

"Are you the father?" The closest one asked.

All Angel could do is nod as he moved towards his son. Lucien lay pale and quiet against the sheets, unnaturally sleeping. An IV in either hand dripped away, while a machine counted his heartbeat. Stitched blackened his left eye brow.

"What happened?"

"Will you join us outside for a moment Mr.Gaelin."

Reluctantly Buffy and Angel left their child to the nurse checking the machines. Their footsteps echoed against the linoleum.

"Lucien, it seems, has suffered some sort of seizure. We have him on a mild sedative to relax him until we can do more tests. We should know more by morning."

"Seizures?" Angel echoed. The doctors nodded and asked if they needed anything else to have a nurse page them. As they left Angel turned to Buffy.

"Seizures?"

"He did not have a seizure Angel, he has a vision."

"But how? We bound his powers until he is 21."

"I don't know. I was upstairs with Connor working on homework when I heard Luc scream. I found him in the downstairs bathroom, huddled on the floor bleeding. When I asked him what he had been doing he said he was trying to touch the light. He said he heard a voice and saw, saw…." She could not finish.

"Saw what Buffy?" he grabbed her shoulders.

"Aveline….dead."

Angel steadied himself against the wall.


	7. Vision Brings All

Three years had passed since Angel had taken his first breath in over two hundred years. Now a part of him wished his heart would once again be a shriveled piece of ice, as it expanded threatening to explode. Just with a hint, a thought, a word of the death of his child and everything stopped. Time loosened its grip in the tiny, bright hospital corner. He pushed his gaze back to his son.

Lucien was as white as the sheets clutched to his chest, tears rimming his dark eyes, Cordi's eyes. Fear had never tainted his children, at least beyond the innocent ones of childhood. Buffy gripped at his arm.

"Where is Aveline? Where is my baby?" hysteria edged her voice.

"I don't know. I had to find you and Luc…" dawning on him was the lack of presence of his other two children. "Colin?"

"Right here boss. I found something you might want back" Colin's voice wrapped around the corner in the hall.

In the matter of two minutes Angel's heart skipped a beat once more. Flanking Colin, Giles stood regally dapper with one hand perched on Connor's shoulder while Spike sneered at Angel cradling Aveline. His children didn't look any worse for the wear except for the haunting trouble in Connor's face. Aveline giggled at Spike whispering in his ear. She finally caught sight of her father.

"Daddy!"

Possessive, he crossed the hallway taking his baby from his nemesis and pulling Connor by the hand into Lucien's room.

"Angel..did you….oh god..my babies. Giles, what?" Buffy stammered. She was seated on the bed next to Lucien, cradling him in her lap.

"I don't care what you have to say to the doctors Colin, but let them know we are taking Lucien home now."

He handed Aveline to his wife, swept Lucien up in the blanket, grabbed Connor once more by the hand and headed for the elevator. Colin disappeared in the direction of the nurse's station while Buffy carrying her daughter and followed by Giles and the vampire trailed behind Angel. Things were getting interesting.

Angel eyed Spike as everyone piled out of their cars and into the house. The blonde menace paced around the door, not obvious or anything.

"So?" he glared at Angel.

Angel looked from Spike to Giles, who nodded grimly.

"Come in," inviting the vampire over the threshold.

Buffy handed Aveline to Connor, taking Lucien from her husband.

"I'm going to get him a bath and all of them in bed."

Angel nodded. She pulled Lucien closer to her chest herding her children in front of her up the stairs. The dogs chased after them.

"Why are you here?" Angel pulled out three glasses when they moved into his library. Lightly he drizzled bourbon over the thick ice cubes he placed in each tumbler. Spike took advantage taking his own, Angel turned handing the second to Giles.

"Not that it is wonderful to see you," he laid a hand against the elder man's arm. "You think over your answer. I'm going to go look in on Lucien."

Upstairs Angel found Connor tucked into the corner of Aveline's bed dressed in gray and blue pjs with the pink sleeper princess in his lap reading the Velveteen Rabbit. He paused for a second savoring the scene of peace. He could hear splashing down the hallway in the bright bathroom.

Buffy sat on the edge of the tub whispering with Lucien.

"Hey buddy," Angel leaned against the doorway.

Amongst the suds his son's bright ebony curls shinned against the white tile. His inky eyes stared wide, stretching with his smile.

"Hey Daddy."

"How are you doing?" he moved away from the door, kneeling beside Buffy. She handed a towel, Angel lifted his soapy child out of the water wrapping him in the dark blue towel. Lucien snuggled into the foals, sighing against his father's chest.

Minutes later Lucien Gailen was folded into his bed, a parent sitting on each side.

"Luc, can we talk about what you told us at the hospital?" Angel whispered.

"Sure Daddy." Never one to shy away from things, his son stared straight into his face, then put a hand on Angel's.

"You said you saw…"

"I was in the bathroom, trying to find a band-aid. There was a light in the corner. A lady called my name. She was like mommy, but different."

"What did she look like?" Buffy took his other hand.

"She had a big smile and black hair, curly. She was happy. Then I saw the sad thing."

Angel did not want his son to go on, he wanted to rewind to the last day and keep Cordelia from his son. To hold back the gift that had somehow slipped through the binds they had put there six years ago.

"Black, someone black had Ave. She was crying and I could not see her. It shined, then red. She was going to sleep, and then she died. The light left her, like when Cordi left."

"Who?" Angel stammered.

"Cordi, the woman in the light."

Giles watched Angel follow Buffy down the stairs. At the bottom she reached for him, he encircled her to his chest. They looked as if they were grieving.

"Giles." Buffy reached him, shaking. He reached for the woman, the girl he had raised to a woman. In his heart he knew it had begun.


	8. When The Bough Breaks

Giles leaned against the bookshelf, absentmindly scanning Angel's thick, ancient volumes. He had helped Angel find over half his collection, starting when Connor was no more than Aveline's age now. That had been seven years ago with Connor just passing into his second decade. Angel had fought so long for his son, giving up everything and everyone for him, even Cordelia. He would have given up his own life if ….well that was another story. Giles wondered what Angel would do in the span of ten minutes, after her told his Buffy everything.

The couple in question stood over by the side board which held Angel's array of beverages. Buffy was refusing a stuff drink from Angel, while he poured back dark bourbon. Spike was not one to refuse another; he stretched out his glass silently. Giles considered that even the vampire needed something to steel himself.

"What's happened?" Giles ventured.

"Lucien, he saw…him" Buffy started.

"He had a vision" Angel finished.

"Of?" Spike coughed "I though you had bound the tyke's powers?"

If it had been another time Angel would have questioned the bleach bear's sources, instead he just pulled Buffy closer.

"Of our baby, dead?"

This news even shocked Giles, yet did not surprise him. The signs were turning with the dark tide that lapped after the fate of tiny Aveline.

"Buffy, Angel. We need to talk."

"So you came up with an answer old man?"

Buffy looked from her husband to her old watcher, the man her children called grandpa.

"Angel wanted to know why I was here."

"Especially with me in tow I would guess," Spike interjected, sprawling in one of the deep black leather couches.

Wiping at his glasses, Giles stuttered for a moment, his heart refusing to let him speak and in the end it was the vampire who belayed the worst moment of all of their lives, well maybe except Spike's.

"Basically, the night your kid was born some prophecy came true. When she turns twenty-one she becomes some beacon of power, like a glow in the dark demon battery. That is if she survives until then. So with the boy's vision, well there is no telling now."

Giles gaped at the creature sitting across the room from him, willing his hands into balls so he did not stake his arse.

"You bloody bastard, do shut up," he turned to Buffy, who was looking very confused with her own gaping look at Spike.

"Giles?"

"Buffy, sit down."

"No! I want you to tell me what this arrogant ass if talking about."

"Angel, please get her,"

"Giles, I think you should answer her," her large husband moved behind her, instantly supporting her lower back while his own legs were ready to give.

"You are right. It is another damn bloody prophecy, but one that no one has been able to prove wrong. Since just after Aveline's birth I have spent almost every waking hour searching for someone or something to disprove what we found. The council has had people looking in every dimension conceivable."

"GILES! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" Buffy leaped across the room to shake him. Her grip was tight, willing to leave bruises on Giles by the morning. He thought nothing of this, only tried to regain his dry throat.

"The shanshu Wesley translated was the cut and dry of the prophecy, he did not read between the lines." Wearily he settled his back against the shelves, setting down the drink. "The vampire with a soul would in fact give him a mortal life, which is what Aveline's birth did. Yet the world lost a champion, that balance had to be corrected, with your daughter. Any good, any power Angel had or would ever possess was passed onto her. I have waited for signs, for until a few weeks ago I was not sure of the compass of this. As she grows whatever way this power will manifest itself will grow. Since her birth the demonic rate of evil has grown in L.A. and in California alone by two fold."

"Ok, so she will become a champion, just as Connor or Lucien might be. They are my children just as well as my daughter," Angel argued, not seeing the point of this revelation. He did not believe why Giles was acting as this was the end of the world. They had all faced much worse than this.

"Your sons were not conceived out of pure love, or born into it. Both boys were born in your demon form. Your daughter gave you your gift from the Powers that Be, for all reasons of who knows why. They have chosen her to take up where you left off. If either of your sons does become champions it will be of their own right, starting anew in the world on the side of good. Aveline carries everything you entailed and achieved, eventually we suppose even your memories, thought we have no idea how this would manifest. The last part of the prophecy is that she will retain all of her powers by the last day of the sixth month after her twenty first years."

"Then why all the worry now?" Buffy's voice quavered, she reached for her husband's hand.

"Aveline will attract every demon and evil source from here to Atlantis, perhaps even ripple across the dimensions. Whoever would have the chance to get her in their hands, well there is no end to the madness they could achieve. The thing is…to retain any power before she reaches her twenty first, she must…." He looked far off above his head.

"She must what Giles? GILES! WHAT MUST…" this time it was Angel who screamed.

"She must die at their hand," he muttered. The words fell as hard as stones in an empty pond. They floated through the room, ripping the breath from the little girl's parents…

Now they had been told.

Upstairs Aveline cuddled under the covers closer to Connor, he rolled over encasing her in the strength of a boy who one day rival his own father's deeds. Yet who would be there to save them all. She sighed, poking a sticky thumb back into her mouth and pulling Gilley close to her chest with the other hand. In the dim light from the hallway the two heads, one dark against the pillow melting into the shadows and the other a tiny gold beacon.


	9. Down Will Come All

**Rome, Italy**

Voices murmured outside the double doors of the Roman villa. Buffy, encased in cream sheets, tossed in the dreams of memory.

_For the first time in her life Buffy felt pure hatred for the powers which created her. When would be the end? She had died twice so far, murdered the man she loved, watched her mother slip away from the word and her friends fight night after night, all to accomplish what. If she could not protect one that was truly innocent, what was left? _

_Her first instinct had been to lash out, to hit someone which left Spike sprawled on the floor rubbing his jaw. For once he said nothing. _

_"Buffy," Angel whispered. Buffy looked up to where his gaze rested on the doorway. Lucien stood center in the doorway. For a moment Buffy did not recognize the child she had almost raised from birth, the boy's eyes had aged lifetimes. Bit by bit Buffy felt her life slipping towards the rushing darkness she had always fought. The light spilled around his tiny outline. He reached behind him to lead a second person into the room. _

_"Willow," Buffy breathed. The auburn headed witch had let her youthful shag flow into a mass of soft curls shading the gray green eyes rimmed in power. Travel weary stains bruised beneath her eyes, of which matched those of the young woman peeking over he shoulder. This time it was Angel who spoke._

_"Dawn."_

_No one in the room moved, or breathed for the matter; stuck in a moment of pure disbelief, until it was the child who brought them around._

_"Mommy," Luc trembled._

_Movement blew through the room as the slayer collected her son, making her way up the stairs. _

Sitting straight up, Buffy's heart crashed with the thunder outside. After a few steadying breaths she realized that the night was cool and clear. The only storm that raged was inside her own heart, just as it had for every night since she had given her baby away.

_Inside the black explorer Angel turned towards the window watching the rain weep down the glass. Through the two front seats he watched the green numbers melt away, they had less than five minutes left. Silently he crushed his fist against the door as a tear slipped past his defenses. He turned to his wife who sat with Aveline on her lap, humming to the silent child._

_Earlier that night they had trimmed the Christmas tree with their children. Connor had lifted a giggling Aveline up to put a gingerbread man on the tree. Angel had watched from the doorway, amazed by the contrast of his children. Connor's dark coloring against his fair haired sister. Buffy reaching behind him as they stood together in a secret sorrow. No one but the two of them, Willow and Giles knew of what was to happen that night. Their daughter would fall away from the world she had been born to and those who loved her. _

_For the first time in months, Lucien had smiled. His eyes innocently blue with the merry antics of his baby sister. Tonight he would reclaim his childhood, yet lose a sister who he had witnessed murdered in his mind. Oh how they had argued. Angel refused to even entertain the idea of giving their baby up, even after witnessing the toll the vision were having on his youngest son. For once in his life he had wanted to be utterly selfish, to turn his back on those who had given him his daughter, for they wanted her back. It was Buffy who was stronger, who had been the voice to make the final decision. _

_Angel had looked over at his daughter in her arms. The tiny, sculpted features of a true innocent, sleeping in safe contentment with the knowledge that it was her mother's arms which held her. She was in pink footy pajamas, swaddled in the pink and white quilt Buffy had made for her first big girl bed. Gilley tucked against her cheek looking up at him with bright buttons eyes._

_There was a tap on the window. He had moved to take the baby but Buffy would not release her child, the whole situation was surreal. They would go home and she could tuck her baby into bed with them. Instead she let Angel go around the car and open the door for her. He put an arm around her waist whole shutting the door behind her with another. A few yard away a plane hummed softly on the tarmac, mist pooled around their footsteps. Two shadows came forward out of the mist. For the first time in her life Buffy there was no happiness in her heart when she saw her best friend and watcher._

_Willow and Giles stood a few feet away from the parents, clad in black raincoats._

"_Stop!" Buffy wailed "Angel, I can not do this."_

_Angel had no words, he took Buffy into his arms, encasing their child between them._

"_Remember when she was born Buffy? How hard it was to bring her into this world. How hard you worked to bring her here without magic or medicine. It was all you sweetheart, your love for our baby."_

"_I will always love her," Buffy shouted across the rain to Giles. In that moment her heart closed to him and Willow, to the years they had shared together. _

_She shifted her daughter, pressing a cheek to the sleeping one._

"_Remember Ave, no matter what happens I will find you again. Mommy will always be in your heart. Remember I love you my baby girl." With a choked sob she handed her daughter to Angel._

_She watched him hold his daughter for minute, eyes closed, though tears still escaped to mingle with the rain on his cheeks. He whispered something in Irish in Aveline's ear then stepped towards Giles._

"_I can not do this Buffy, she is the one perfect thing in my life," he agonized, turning away._

"_It is simple Angel, if we do not give her away then we lose her life. At least" choking "she will grow up. We can not cheat her of that."_

_Giles closed the steps between them, but it was Willow who touched Buffy. _

"_No one can ever know what this means," Willow sadly smiled._

"_I do this only so my daughter can live. For no other reason," Buffy spat._

"_I know," Willow reached for the baby._

_And in less than a breath, her daughter was gone…_

**Eighteen Years Later…**

**Hartford, CT**

Sunlight poured through the wall of windows lighting a rainbow across the colors of the rug. Samantha Finnegan collected the papers left by her students on the corner of her desk. Another Monday was finished, now she could go home to her empty nest to wander the rooms her children had once raced through. They were all due home in ten days for Thanksgiving. Her gaze fell on her trio with their easy smiles, her tiny daughter flanked by the overgrown men who would always be her little boys. Something tightened in her stomach; she needed to see her children soon. At forty-six she did not look a day over thirty-five, her family kept her young, evidence by the smile lines shaping her aqua green eyes. She wore her shoulder length blond hair in a French twist, blew a couple loose strands out of her eyes. She started humming to herself when a shadow at the back of the classroom stilled everything but her memory.

_Braced against the wind and rain on the subtly lit dock she leaned against her husband. Taking one hand she felt for his heartbeat, it was racing just as hers was. Anticipation layered with fear simmered in her stomach, her husbands great hands encircled her waist to rest on her great round belly where their second child grew. Tonight they would collect their third child…_

She had never seen his dark eyes before, but instantly she knew who he was. The midnight hair with gray streaked temples, he wore a thick gray sweater against charcoal slacks, a heavy coat folded over the desk for use in the graying winter light outside.

"Hello Angel"

_**Washington D.C.**_

Eva pulled her navy corduroy coat on over her green sweater then flipped the lights off in the classroom. Light darkened on the tiny sets of tables and chairs. She shoved the bucket hat over her golden brown curls and braced herself against the brittle December wind. She wanted to catch the metro before it got too dark. She ducked in and out of the pools of light that dotted the pebbled path along the National Mall. To her left the Washington Monument was a beacon of light. In her mind nothing could harm her in the grace of such historical perfection.

Half an hour later she pushed open the red door to the town house she shared with her two closest friends from college, Jessie and Cattie. This was her favorite part of the day. Two golden balls of barking fluff jumbled together in their excitement to reach the door.

"Hey Marney, Hey Murphy," she knelt down without shedding her coat the envelope her puppies in her arms. In that one wet second everything was right in the world.

Outside 108 Church St a silver Cadillac parked across from the alley way. The engine hummed pouring warmth into the car. The driver slapped his hands against the steering wheel then shifted the vehicle into park. For the last two months he had taken up this usual position, yet tonight he glanced in the rearview mirror to make sure his partner, a white van, was positioned down the block. When the moon reached its peak for the evening and the light late up on his cell, they would move. Until then he settled into the warmth to watch the project.

She would greet the dogs then turn on the kitchen lights for about twenty minutes. Around nine she and the dogs would settle into the back bedroom for the night after she let the puppies out one last time. By eleven the lights were out in that corner. He thought back to that first night eight weeks ago when he had caught his first glimpse of her. Despite being alive for almost three hundred years the shock of seeing her rocked him. He had seen and done things that were unimaginable, taken women of great beauty and killed men of heroic strength, yet the vibes he got from this chick. Well as someone used to say, they made him feel "wiggy".

_**Midnight..**_

****The figure stood in the doorway, barely noticeable in the orange light that leaked in through the window. He focused his eyes in the darkness on the small mound huddled under the blankets on the bed. For a moment his breath hitched. The two sleepy golden balls of fur curled around her sleeping form. Carefully his partner lifted the sleeping puppies from the bed and down into the pillows that had fallen to the floor. He pulled back the layers of quilts, wanting to stand for a moment and drink in the sight of her. His partner nudged the his elbow and whispered

"We only have five more minutes."

The witch had created a time vortex within the house. No one saw them enter and no one would see them leave. Quickly he bundled the sleeping girl into the quilts, then lifted her into his arms. With a quick glance around the room he grabbed the framed portrait of her family on the night stand, tucking it into the blankets. One last glance at the sleeping dogs and they fled the house.

Just before he handed her over to the waiting arms in the white van, he pushed back the covers from her face. In her sleep she was a memory he had longed to hold, for a brief second her eyes opened, locking with his. Then sleep reclaimed her and she was gone into a dream…

_The man standing before her was the sandman, her protector in that world where she was neither dreaming nor awake. The place where she knew she was someone else, the place where the memories of a little girl named, the green eyed angel, was alive. White light pulsed against her psyche, spinning her into a place she had never ventured awake. _

_Suddenly waves crashed at her feet and she was at the beach. Warm water bubbled around her feet that quickly sunk in the sand._

_"Hello," a tiny voice caught on the wind from behind her._

_Her dream self turned to share in the smile of a little girl, a kind of shock that registered in both of their eyes. The curious little one was dressed in purple corduroy overalls with a white peasant shirt embroidered with pink roses. Her golden hair was parted down the middle and plaited into braids tied at the end with purple ribbon. _

_"Who are you?" the child spoke again._

_"My name is Eva."_

_"Wow, that's my name backwards. My name is Ave, well that's what my daddy calls me." the girl giggled behind one hand, then extended it._


	10. Chapter 10

**I have not worked on this in awhile so let me know what you think.**

A buzzing in her ears brought Eva out of the hazing dream world, part of her clung to the truth there. She tried to bring a hand to her ear to push away the insect making the awful noise but her hand felt strangely heavy. Why was there a bee or a wasp in her room. Truthfully she was quite terrified of the little beings, but her body refused to cooperate. Slowly she slid into complete awareness. The buzzing clarified into the murmuring of voices. Voices she did not recognize. Opening her eyes the view was also unfamiliar. She laid on the backseat of a van covered with a blanket. One of the side doors at the front was open. Panic welled in her throat.

Angel left the gym wiping a towel across his face. From the fourth floor he could hear the thunder of screaming voices. Balling the towel into a fist he took the stairs five at a time. On his first glance of the Hyperion's lobby he saw a tall blond man slam a fisted hand on the front desk. Behind the desk Fred was shaking her head back and forth, as if denying something.

"May I help you with something?" Angel slowed his pace taking the last steps one at a time with a genial smile.

The face that turned to him was not one he had ever expected to see again.

"Riley?"

"Damn you Angel, if you—"Riley advanced across the tile towards Angel, raising the fist at his side.

One of the front doors open.

"STOP!" The entering figure bellowed. Both men turned towards the voice, this time confusion crossed both of their faces.

"Giles?" Angel gaped. He had not seen his ex-wife's watcher since that night.

"We all need to talk," Rupert Giles nodded wearily.

The scene in his office was not one Angel could ever have dreamed up. Riley Finn stood behind a chair in which his wife Samantha sat. Giles had lowered himself into its match while Angel leaned on the bookshelf, also refusing to sit.

"Our daughter is missing, and he is the one who took her." Riley demanded.

"Riley, you need to let me explain." The old man's hands were shaking as he wiped at his glasses sighing.

"Angel, I never told you who we gave Aveline to, to protect her."

Angel just stared.

"Eighteen years ago I asked Riley and Samantha if they would take your daughter; raise her as their own to protect her. They left their life, changed their names and raised her with their two sons."

"And now she is missing?" Incredulous Angel sat down.

Samantha nodded "A man approached me two days ago at my office; he told me his name was Angel. He was asking after our daughter…" Her voice broke.

Riley squeezed his wife's arm "Sam asked him to leave, refusing to give him any information. We immediately called Eva…"

"Eva…that is Ave backwards" Angel whisper.

"Giles told us that is what you and Buffy called her." Sam nodded.

"She just graduated, she lives in D.C. now. She would not pick up her cell; we couldn't get a hold of either of her roommates, so we drove to the city. By the time we got there it was almost 8am, and she was already gone," Riley looked at Giles.

"Well obviously the man who came to see you was not me. I had no idea…" Angel turned his gaze towards Giles. "You told us that if we gave her up, you would keep her safe."

"Do you think I do not realize that Angel?"

Sitting on the dirty steps in the shadows of the alley Eva began to rethink her plan. She had absolutely no idea where she was, no money and her head was pounding so badly that she wanted to throw up. Humiliated she slumped over the railing and pitched forth the contents of her stomach. The pain lessened an ounce; still she laid her head on her knees taking shallow breaths.

Concentrating on the pain Eva was not aware of the thick footsteps moving her way. She thought the halting breaths were her own until a voice joined them.

"Need help my pretty?" The wheezing got louder.

Slowly Eva turned her head to the right. What stood in the shadows froze the screams in her throat. The figure was tall, dressed in a black suite that is where all familiarity stopped. The face was grey with sunken eyes the color of old blood. One look was all it took for Eva to turn and run towards the road. Her body hit what felt like a brick wall, sending her sprawling into the tarry black water beside a giant dumpster.

"Now, now," the wheezing turned to manic laughter "no need to leave so soon."

Above her a second creature, just as disgusting as the first was reaching down with black hands.

Light pulsed across her face, blinding light. Foot steps were running in the water. Eva pushed herself up on one elbow, wincing at the pain that exploded in her muscles. In the dimness she could pick up a second pair of shadows, running towards the creatures. Theq one over her lifted his head looking in the same direction she was. He licked his lips but took a steqpq back.

"Quick, find her." A maleq voice commanded.

Strong hands were lifting her up out of the black water. Finally the terror was just too much. Eva shut her eyes, gathered was strength she had left and pushed against her attacker.

Shouts interrupted the angry conversation in Angel's office, causing everyone to pause and look towards the door.

"What the hell is it now? Angel growled crossing to the door.

In the lobby his youngest son, Lucien was helping Xander's daughter Gabriella sit down on one of the sofas while her brother Shane stood at the desk waving his hands at Fred. Angel had to take a second look before he noticed how pale Gabriella was, and all three were covered in black mud mixed with blood.

Connor burst through the double doors almost stumbling down the steps, cradling a figure in his arms. Angel did not who to approach first.

"Oh, my god." Samantha Finnegan's sharp gasp broke his trance when she pushed by him.

"Dad!" Lucien was shouting.

"Oh god, oh god." Gabriella mumbled leaning into Shane's dark shirt. Shane put his arms around his sister.

"My baby…" Samantha said rushing towards Angel's eldest son. Angel was right behind her.

Samantha was trying to tug the figure out of Gabriel's, who was sitting on the steps, arms. Closer Angel realized the body was that of a young woman. Her light hair was soaked with black water, blood smeared her pale cheeks and torn, soaked clothing. She was unconscious.

"Is she?" Riley reached the other side of Angel.

Connor, with heaving breaths, shook his head.

There could only be one person who his son held. Keeping a few steps back Angel stared straight into his son's eyes.


End file.
